Canada adds gymnastics silver, swimming bronze on busy day at FISU Games
It was a milestone Wednesday for Team Canada at the FISU World University Games, highlighted by a silver medal in men’s artistic gymnastics and a bronze in the pool. With Canadian athletes competing across five sports, the country added to its medal count and delivered a series of strong performances.
Archery
Canada’s archers moved into elimination rounds Wednesday at the 2025 FISU Games, with Trevor Hoy (Norwood, Ont. / Trent) earning the country’s lone win. Hoy defeated Justin Ho Chun Ngai of Hong Kong 139-136 in the men’s compound 1/48 round before falling 148-139 to Turkey’s Batuhan Amcaoglu in the 1/24 stage.
In men’s recurve, Victor Chen (Vancouver, B.C. / Waterloo) lost 6-2 to New Zealand’s Ben McLean, while Benjamin Lee (Kitchener, Ont. / Waterloo) fell 6-0 to Poland’s Jakub Bak.
On the women’s side, Jyotsna Challa (Halifax, N.S. / Dalhousie) was edged 140-138 by Malaysia’s Natasha Binti Mohd Shahruddin in women’s compound, while Brynnleigh Lohner (Carbon, Alta.) was unable to compete due to continued equipment delays.
In women’s recurve, Natalie Chan (Mississauga, Ont. / Toronto) lost 6-4 to the Netherlands’ Suzanne De Vries and Amelia Gagne (Peterborough, Ont. / Trent) fell 6-2 to Kristina Druskova of Slovakia, wrapping up Canada’s individual campaign.
Artistic Gymnastics
Canada captured silver in the men’s artistic gymnastics team event on Wednesday in Essen, holding onto their early lead from the first session on Tuesday before being passed only by Japan’s final rotation total of 252.027. The Canadians finished with 239.593 points—their best FISU team result.
William Emard (Laval, Que. / UQAM) and Ioannis Chronopoulos (Milton, Ont. / Nebraska) led the way, finishing first and second overall in the all-around qualification standings. Emard scored 82.899, highlighted by a 14.066 on floor and 13.800 on parallel bars, while Chronopoulos followed at 82.532, delivering the top pommel horse score of the day at 14.166.
In individual finals, Emard advanced to rings and Felix Dolci will compete in the floor and horizontal bar finals.
Athletics
Favour Okpali (Toronto, Ont. / Western) capped her 400m campaign with an eighth-place finish in the final on Day 3 of athletics at the 2025 FISU Games in Bochum. The Western standout clocked 53.87 seconds after three rounds of competition.
Georgia Oland (Calgary, Alta. / Calgary) advanced to the women’s 200m semifinals with a time of 24.23 seconds. Teammate Doyinsola Ogunremi (Ottawa, Ont. / Ottawa) finished in 25.14.
In men’s 200m heats, Jordan Soufi (Winnipeg, Man. / Manitoba) ran 21.74 and Joshua Duckman (Toronto, Ont. / Western) posted 21.76 in strong performances.
In shot put, A.J. Stanat (St. Thomas, Ont. / Windsor) placed 10th in Group B with a throw of 17.25m, while Wesley Eze (Calgary, Alta. / Alberta) finished 11th in Group A at 16.19m. Jessica Gyamfi (London, Ont. / Ottawa) tied for eighth in Group B of women’s discus.
Other results included Sophie Coutts (Toronto, Ont.) finishing 17th overall in the 800m semis (2:06.13), Kenneth West (Brampton, Ont.) and Arman Shahzadeh (Richmond Hill, Ont.) jumping 7.34m and 7.37m respectively in long jump, and Robin Selkirk (Whitby, Ont. / Western) completing Day 1 of the heptathlon with strong efforts in hurdles, shot put, high jump, and 200m.
Badminton
Canada saw four singles players advance to the round of 32 at the 2025 FISU Games with straight-sets victories. Eliana Zhang (Montreal, Que. / McGill) defeated Nepal’s Nisham Hangma Subba 2-0 in women’s singles, while Chloe Hoang (Markham, Ont. / Ontario Tech) earned a 2-0 win over Spain’s Ana Novoa. On the men’s side, Timothy Lock (Markham, Ont. / Humber) topped American Samuel Wales 2-0 and Victor Lai (Scarborough, Ont. / York) downed Korea’s Park Sihyun by the same score.
In doubles action, both Canadian women’s pairs dropped their round of 32 matches 2-0 to opponents from China and Korea. Lai and Jasper Tang (Markham, Ont. / Western) were also eliminated in the men’s doubles round of 32 with a 2-0 loss to France.
Swimming
Shona Branton (Port Lambton, Ont. / Western) closed Canada’s swimming competition at the 2025 FISU Games with a bronze medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke on Wednesday in Berlin. The two-time Mustangs Athlete of the Year touched in 1:07.75, marking her first medal while representing Canada.
It was Canada’s second swimming medal at the Games, following Ashley McMillan’s 200m IM bronze on Tuesday.
Julie Brousseau (Ottawa, Ont. / Florida) finished fourth in the women’s 400m freestyle, clocking 4:10.14 — just 0.42 seconds behind the podium. Ben Loewen (Toronto, Ont. / Toronto) placed sixth in the men’s 200m backstroke final with a time of 1:59.00.
Both Canadian medley relay teams narrowly missed the finals. The women (Lloyd, McMillan, Strojnowska, O’Croinin) placed ninth in 4:13.92, just 0.06s behind the last qualifying team. The men (Gagne, Tiavassalo, Hussey, Weeks) also finished ninth at 3:41.21.
Collyn Gagne placed 11th in the men’s 400m IM (4:25.39), while Julia Strojnowska was 22nd in the women’s 400m freestyle (4:20.85).